Four Billion Years of Oops

A puddle, a flash, a molecule That accidentally Made a copy of itself

That was it That was the start Four billion years ago Some chemistry that wouldn't quit

It copied wrong And the wrong one copied better And the better-wrong one copied better-still And the better-still-wrong one copied best

A mutation Is a copy that drifted The drift is the only door Anything new ever walks through

So the puddle became A bag with a wall And the wall became A skin

And the skin became A something That ate Other somethings

CELL!

That's the whole drop That's the entire chorus You are made of one That figured out

Four billion years of oops Four billion years of oops The oopses that made it Are everything you got

Four billion years of oops Four billion years of oops Eyes were an accident Lungs were an accident The thing hearing this Was an accident Of stunning quality

A fish slipped onto land A lizard grew warm A warm thing grew fur A fur thing grew worried about the future

A worried thing made tools The tools got smaller The smaller tools got smarter The smarter tools wrote songs The songs were about the puddle

CELL!

Four billion years of oops Four billion years of oops And nobody was steering And nobody was wrong

Four billion years of oops Four billion years of oops And the oops that made it through Is the oops you ride around in

You are an oops With really good posture